Trigger warning:

This site may, in fact always will contain images and information likely to cause consternation, conniptions, distress, along with moderate to severe bedwetting among statists, wimps, wusses, politicians, lefties, green fascists, and creatures of the state who can't bear the thought of anything that disagrees with their jaded view of the world.

Apr 22, 2010

The Carbon Sense Coalition today accused Australian politicians of risking Australian jobs and industry on a quixotic scheme to generate 20% of 2020 electricity from sunbeams and sea breezes.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that even if this were possible, it could only be achieved by tripling power costs to industry and consumers.

“The proposed Renewable Energy Target Scheme would legislate that 20% of Australia’s electricity must come from “renewable” sources. They tell us this will reduce our production of carbon dioxide and thus reduce global warming.

“This is a foolish gamble.

“Firstly, there is no evidence that man’s production of carbon dioxide controls climate. The pulsating sun, the churning cosmos, the restless oceans, the changing clouds, the swirling jet streams and the erupting volcanoes on land and under-sea are the real climate controllers. Man’s effect on global climate is insignificant.

“Secondly, there is extensive evidence that a warmer world with more carbon dioxide plant food in the air would be a cleaner, greener and more abundant place for most people.

“Thirdly, the only non-carbon fuel that can reliably supply the legislated 20% of Australia’s grid power by 2020 is nuclear fuel. But that is currently prohibited, and there is not enough time for development.

“Man has been using wind and solar power for centuries. They were invaluable for the cottages and cottage industries of yesteryear. They are not suitable to supply large modern cities and industries – they are very dilute energy sources needing large areas of land for collection, and they can never supply continuous power. Every large solar/wind facility in the world has to be backed up 100% by a reliable power source – coal, gas, nuclear, geothermal, hydro or some not-yet-invented large capacity storage unit. Of these, only gas is immediately available and politically acceptable in Australia.

“Compulsory development of wind & solar energy will thus force the wasteful construction of backup gas-fired power plants. Soaring capital and operating costs will then force Australia’s electricity prices to at least treble by 2020.

“But, alas, burning gas also generates the dreaded CO2. And it is not “renewable”.

“Every producer and consumer should be free to use wind and solar power at their own expense, but Canberra should not enforce such job-killing and job-exporting silliness onto every consumer and industry in the land.

“Abolish Renewable Energy Targets – Australia and its climate will be better without them.”

“Carbon Sense” has responded to a call by Penny Wong for comments on the proposed increases in Renewable Energy Targets. Our submission can be found here.

For an authoritative estimate of future power costs under the revised RET Scheme, see:

“The Great Kyoto Land Grab.”

Many Australian landowners have had their land devalued and assets seized in devious moves by Federal and State Governments over several years. This was prompted by Governments using bans on vegetation control to make them appear to be achieving Kyoto cuts to carbon dioxide emissions. The Howard government started it all and then Rudd levered moral obligations into real obligations by signing Kyoto. Both realised that, if they could say they had prevented tree clearing, they became eligible for Kyoto credits.

These credits have real value, but governments have expropriated this value leaving the landowners without the carbon credits but with the pain of the growing burden of eucalypt regrowth.

“Carbon Sense” (in a great hurry), lodged a submission entitled “Grasses, Trees, Climate and Food” which can be seen here:

We were then invited to appear before the Senate Committee when they conducted public hearings in Rockhampton. We accepted the invitation and Viv Forbes flew to Rockhampton. Our introductory presentation “The Great Kyoto Land Grab” is here:

The Iceland Volcano and Climate Change.

The alarmists have a problem. The temperature of the globe refuses to follow the IPCC computer predictions. There has been no warming for at least a decade despite continual increase in the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (from “almost nothing” to “very little”). The northern hemisphere has suffered two bitterly cold winters. After every year of failed forecasts, new excuses are offered up – some alarmists have even discovered the probable real cause – a quiet sun.

But now a volcano in Iceland offers hope to the alarmist cause - “Global warming is there all right, but it is masked by the volcanic dust haze obscuring the northern sun. If it weren’t for this volcano, the globe would be sizzling. Once the haze clears, warming will resume with a vengeance – we have no time to lose – we must pass the Ration-N-Tax Scheme bill as soon as possible.”

And of course we have the serial alarmists who now say that global warming is causing increased volcanic activity (just like wet roads cause rain?).

The volcano illustrates the remarkable potential of molten lava to melt ice and warm seawater. Now we also have a hint as to what process periodically warms deep ocean waters. The combination of warm oceans and cold skies is sometimes deadly for world climate.

Warming of the oceans increases evaporation, and winds carry that moisture over land. But the cold continental air turns that moisture into clouds, rain, ice and snow, presenting the sun with a blinding white blanket. Ice, snow and clouds reflect the sun’s heat, causing bleak weather. Once there is sufficient thickness of snow that it does not all melt next summer, more reflection of the sun’s heat causes further cooling. The real danger of all this is not global warming, which brings boom times to life on earth, but global cooling, which is deadly for most of earth’s creatures.

Abundant power supplies on the ground and abundant carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will help societies survive any global cooling. Destroying our capacity to produce cheap reliable power and food, and thinking of burying our valuable carbon dioxide, are suicidal policies.

To see how extra carbon dioxide can feed the world look at this time lapse video here:

Apr 21, 2010

Quadrant Online is one of the best online journals I have encountered for the serious reader over the years, with well-researched articles giving fearless commentary on the issues of our times. In the latest issue there is a feature on Sarah Palin by Steven Kates who teaches Economics at RMIT University in Melbourne.

Normally when Palin is featured over here the press tend to do their research by going to the usual sources; MSNBC, The New YORK Times, etc with predictable results. In this case the author has taken the time to actually get an understanding of the subject. While I don’t entirely agree with him on all of it, it is in the main a pretty good representation of her:

Suppose Sarah Palin couldn’t make the simplest public statement without a teleprompter. Just suppose. Suppose she suggested that the people of Austria spoke Austrian or that there were fifty-seven states in the USA. Suppose she really had said that she could see Russia from her front porch. Suppose she had done that, or had spelled potato with an e at the end. Well, we can all agree that any and all of those would clearly make her or anyone else unfit to be President.

Wait, wait. Let’s have another look at the business about the teleprompter. Perhaps it would be a bit hasty to condemn someone as unfit for the presidency for using such modern technologies even in a kindergarten classroom, but should someone write notes on the palm of their hand before making a major speech, nothing would obviously make them less fit to be President than that.

There are at least three matters that follow from this. There is first the malign influence of the established media in the United States on the conduct of American politics. Second is how we, mere citizens, can ever get to know, really know, what we need to know about the people who run for office.

Finally, what do we know from her book about who Sarah Palin is and whether or not she has what it takes to be President of the most powerful nation on earth? ...

Until I read this extract from her book, I was unaware of her knowledge of the free market:

Within six months of taking office, President Obama put the United States on track to double its already staggering national deficit. The new debt, which will burden future generations, is immoral ...

Where is all the money going to come from? It can come from only three places. Government borrows it, government prints it, or government taxes the people for it ...

We tried growing government back in the 1930s, and it didn’t work then either. Massive government spending programs and protectionist economic policies actually helped turn a recession into the Great Depression. New Deal-like spending plans aren’t the only blast from the past we see today. With the government takeover of parts of the banking industry and the auto industry, we see the return of corporatism—government collusion and co-option of big business.

No one person is smart enough to control and predict markets. The free market is just that: free to rise or fall, shrink or expand, based on conditions that are often outside of human control. Government interference in market cycles is just as dangerous as government-directed programs that encourage permanent dependency. In both cases the rewards for responsible behavior and penalties for irresponsible behavior are removed from the scene. This is the lesson I tried to convey to Bristol when we discussed her plans for the future.

The author has a great deal of respect for Sowell who is one of my favorites:

.... That five pages previously she has quoted Thomas Sowell gives me a fair idea of where such ideas may have come from. But it is not that she read such concepts in Sowell that matters (if that is indeed what happened) but that when she did come across them, those were the ideas that stuck and remained.

Sowell is one of the most articulate conservative intellectuals of our time (and interestingly for me, his first book, like my own, was on Say’s Law). That she would find an affinity with Sowell, understand with perfect clarity what he had written and then condense the points so well, is entirely to her credit. ....

Keith Olbermann is symbolic of the loony left, a towering intellect to liberals, and a sad figure of ridicule to people with reality based thinking. Keith has of late been as usual echoing the White House astroturf talking points and on this occasion is playing the race card, which is about the only one Democrat supporters have left. His target was the Tea Party movement.

Keith’s problem is that he really doesn’t get out a lot, and therefore has never encountered a Tea Party, I mean they just don’t happen down in his mums basement. The result is that his only knowledge of the subject if any is what he receives from Rahm, liberal journalists and company.

Apr 20, 2010

I am very fond of satire and have posted stuff of this nature including from The Onion at times. When it is really well done it so echoes real life that it is hard to tell the difference. One post from the Onion, which imitated a ‘news’ report on Obama, a commenter replied, “I had to watch it three times before I was sure it really was satire. I thought maybe it was just another day at CNN or MSNBC.”

Today I was nearly caught out by The Real Polichick, with one suggesting that the Onion was shutting down:

The Onion, the United States oldest and most revered satirical newspaper, first published in 1756, has announced that they will close their website and cease all publishing activities, effective immediately.

Said the owner, "No more satire is possible. Nothing can beat the outrageousness of what comes out of Washington today. In a sentence: We are plum out of satire."

Satirical headlines planned by The Onion, such as "Pelosi: Pass Health Care To Find Out What Is In It", "Major Tax Increases To Reverse Recession", and "Obama Bows To Communist Leader", have been superceded by actual news headlines, causing these satirical headlines and corresponding articles to be pulled.

"I was working on this great concept: Obama would win the Nobel Peace Prize within a few weeks of being inaugerated, " said Abe Iggoof, writer for The Onion, "Then it happened." ……..

I have on occasions been a strong critic of the press and indicated my belief that a large part of their problems are caused by their strongly leftist agendas causing the public to turn away from it. As such this clip struck a chord with me:

Mr. Joe Kaese, Siemens' AG Chief Financial Officer, has a brilliant plan for ripping billions of dollars out the pockets of taxpayers — and his company doesn't mind lying to do it. This financial genius wants to use the Desertec project (a massive confidence trick to extract billions from European taxpayers) as the basis for a gigantic renewable energy network in Australia. According to Kaese:

Australia should be in the lead (in solar energy) and showing the world how it works. If you source solar energy for nothing, and sell natural resources to other countries, it makes for a powerful business case.

Boy, has this guy got chutzpah. Only a complete economic moron could seriously support such a preposterous proposal. And Kaese is no moron. His response to critics of his company's economically insane project is to declare that they represent vested interests that need to be ignored. Irrespective of Siemens' assertions to the contrary its ridiculous solar project is not sustainable in anyway whatsoever.

It would require a permanent flow of massive subsidies to survive, even then there would still be huge rises in electricity prices with devastating consequences for industry. In other words, buying a solar project from this mob would be like buying a bridge from a Brooklyn taxi driver.

The article goes on to give examples of just how badly solar stacks up against conventional power generation. Solar cells have been around since the 1880s and are still to prove themselves capable of being economically viable, and capable of producing power at a competitive rate. The vast majority of green energy is produced by companies milking subsidies from governments.

The reason is given here:

… What makes solar inefficient is not an immature technology but the scientific fact that the maximum amount of solar energy striking the earth under optimum conditions is just under one 1 kilowatt per hour per square meter. That is approximately 11 square feet.

There is absolutely no way that this natural obstacle can be overcome, unless Siemens is planning on buying us a bigger sun. In plain English, it is the diluteness of solar energy that makes it grossly and irredeemably inefficient ….

Still as long as these snake oil salesmen use the right language about saving the planet and use language about governments taking the lead, technological advancement, and flatter the parties involved while playing to Green politics they will get their way.

The green energy companies are amoral. They are fully aware that what they are peddling is an uneconomic product, which can only survive under government patronage or force. They have no real interest in the destructive effect they have on the economies involved or the job prospects lost because of higher taxes or higher energy costs, only the bottom line is important to them. If the population suffers for it, that’s not their department.

Essentially they are little different to your average Nigerian banker.

I was originally going to post on the Australian ABC’s Kerry Obrien interviewing Obama. I didn’t watch it, as I tend to be lukewarm at best towards Kerry, and have no time for Obama. The thought of watching him piss in Obama’s pocket was a bit much. The transcript is here, and for those who are masochistic enough to watch go to this one. Kerry Obrien for my international readers is best described as what you would expect if you met the love child of Keith Olbermann and Chris Mathews, in political interviews, that is. Well maybe not quite that bad.

In searching I came across a clip from a previous report, indicating that the US has some reservations on the Rudd governments internet censorship scheme. I am not sure why as there seems to be some indication they may be on the same track:

Essentially what is proposed is for a mandatory filter to be installed where ISPs are required to block a secret list of sites. That’s right folks, you are not even allowed to know what sites you are unable to access. The reason for this is possibly the likelihood that they intend to make the censorship much more extensive than they are advertising and don’t want you to know how much more.

Another is that they do not want you top know how incompetent or bigoted they are. Wikileaks revealed a list from the governments trial of the system and it included, online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.

New Zealand implemented a similar system recently, blocking among others Prison Planet and Infowars, so the intent over there, appears to be sinister.

Rudd feels that he can push through anything he wishes as long as he can invoke the “protect the little children” clause. Interestingly Conroy, the idiot charged with implementing it has not even viewed the content, claiming it is illegal to do so. Guys just got no sense of adventure, which fits nicely with his lack of a sense of reality.

The Australian Libertarian site, “Thoughts on Freedom” has a great discussion on the subject at present. Check it out and comment if you wish, you are welcome.

Apr 18, 2010

The U.S. Justice Department has abruptly abandoned what had become a high-profile court fight to read Yahoo users' e-mail messages without obtaining a search warrant first.

In a two-page brief filed Friday, the Obama administration withdrew its request for warrantless access to the complete contents of the Yahoo Mail accounts under investigation. CNET was the first to report on the Denver case in an article on Tuesday.

Yahoo's efforts to fend off federal prosecutors' broad request attracted allies--in the form of Google, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Progress and Freedom Foundation--who argued that Americans who keep their e-mail in the cloud enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy that is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

For some time the US justice Department has been fighting Yahoo on this issue and has been determined to secure the ability to have access to Emails without demonstrating any sort of probable cause. What the government is trying to slither around their own privacy laws and the Constitution. There is no reason why users should not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their e-mails.

It is my belief that the government intended to pick off one company in order to establish a precedent, but when faced with a serious group of interested parties, decided to back off owing to the serious consequences of losing. To lose the case on grounds of the Fourth Amendment which requires police to obtain a warrant to conduct searches would call into question the rather draconian warrantless searches and ‘no knock’ raids used all too frequently in the “war on drugs.”

These searches have cost many lives of innocent people as well as those of police who find themselves being fired on by homeowners who think they are being attacked by home invaders.

In any case it really makes you wonder what sort of sad little people the administration must consist of to feel they should have the right to poke about in normal citizens private communications without their knowledge, without their permission, and without having to give a reason for doing so.

Apr 16, 2010

In this statement on space exploration the President is full of contradictory statements. He is stating that among other things the economy needs to be fixed and deficits have to be ‘closed’ then goes on to say that one of the ways to do this is to push space exploration.

At the 1 minute mark he is suggesting that man will be landing on an asteroid by 2025. Back in the early 60s JFK’s moon landing statement was admittedly somewhat ‘out there’ but this is bizarre.

The American people are facing heavy tax hikes to pay for all those programs that are going on or being mooted. The specter of a value added tax has been flagged for a while and he still intends to push through bills on global warming which will have destructive effects on industry, production, the economy, and employment by rationing and taxing carbon usage.

Unless he thinks he can simply squeeze infinite taxes out of the American people, he really needs to start cutting costs and not just soon, right now. It is idiocy to think that after imposing hundreds of billions in extra costs on the economy that he will somehow pull it all together by spending hundreds of billions more to put a man on an asteroid.

Its been a great day for the Paul family, with Ron unexpectedly finding he would give Obama a run for his money in a hypothetical match up for the Presidency, and now son, Rand has secured the converted endorsement of retiring Senator, Jim Bunning which was widely expected to go to Grayson.

Rand Paul, Kentucky’s tea party star and the son of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, got a boost in his Senate race Wednesday: the endorsement of Sen. Jim Bunning, the state’s mercurial Republican senator who is retiring.

Paul, a Bowling Green, Ky., eye surgeon who long has been active in antitax organizations and his father’s libertarian politics, has emerged as the hands-down favorite for the May 18 GOP primary. He has led by double digits in more than one recent independent poll.

Rand who is making his first attempt for office has had an incredible run given that his main opponent has the blessing of the Republican establishment and the endorsements of such people as Dick Cheney and Mitch McConnell as well as huge funding from the GOP establishment, a situation which seems to be working against him in these days of open revolt by the rank and file.

This video of the 9/12 Tea Party was taken while Rand was addressing the crowd and is worth a listen.

Today through a blog comment I encountered Gary Johnson for the first time. Gary was the governor of New Mexico for two terms and seems to be shaping up for a run at the presidency. His site Gary Johnson for America seems to indicate this as well as a number of hot rumours doing the rounds.

While the usual suspects, or at least the previous ones are lining up again this guy seems to be making a low key effort at this stage. While he is a Republican a look into his attitude on issues seems to indicate that he would also be a great candidate for the LP were he so inclined.

He is for example a supporter of limited government with a solid track record to prove it. He states that "every law passed is a little bite out of freedom," and that removing government regulation unleashes the forces of the free market that raise our living standards. As a Governor he vetoed 750 bills and over 1,000 line items.

He also wants to reduce the entitlement system, which is unsustainable, have a strong defense force less thinly spread, backs Ron Paul’s efforts for accountability at the Federal reserve, and opposes the health care debacle that has just been passed.

Other issues are reforming immigration, competition in education, ending the drug war, move the responsibility on abortion and marriage to the states, free trade and is a strong supporter of the 2nd. To hear him speak watch his speech at CPAC here.

Any guy who can climb Mt. Everest with a broken leg has the mental toughness for the job. (And we thought Todd Palin was tough.)

Apr 15, 2010

It has been said often, that anyone in the US can aspire to be president. Today’s Rasmussen Poll is a clear indication that this is in fact the case.

Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is – virtually dead even.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds.

Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

Ask the Political Class, though, and it’s a blowout. While 58% of Mainstream voters favor Paul, 95% of the Political Class votes for Obama.

But Republican voters also have decidedly mixed feelings about Paul, who has been an outspoken critic of the party establishment.

Obama earns 79% support from Democrats, but Paul gets just 66% of GOP votes. Voters not affiliated with either major party give Paul a 47% to 28% edge over the president.

While I tend to find Paul a quirky character, I find myself more often in agreement with him than against. Apart from his weaknesses in foreign policy, mainly in the area of defense I tend to find him pretty sound. It’s a pity he seems to follow the leftist garbage line that the US is somehow an ‘empire’.

The poll though has him well within any margin of error. I doubt he could maintain the momentum in a real election with the rough and tumble of politics, but it must be a very disquieting time for Democrats when one of the most unlikely guys in Congress can be a threat to them.

It seems clear that if the Republicans can put up a genuinely fiscally conservative socially tolerant libertarian Republican in 2012, Obama is a goner. The slogan, “A second term for Jimmy Carter” will have been realized.

Australian governments are learning fast from the Americans. Over there they have developed a habit of passing bills written in haste by the bureaucracy without any understanding of the content. In fact I posted a couple of days ago on a prominent Congressman, John Conyers who made the point that it was pointless reading the health bill as he didn’t have the time to read such a large document, and wouldn’t be able to understand it anyway.

“I always voted at my parties call;

And I never thought of thinking for myself at all”

Over hereSustainability Minister Kate Jones had called for public submissions last week over the proposed listing of a large slice of the coastline opposite Fraser Island as “World heritage.” Despite this, her department had already spent up big on a glossy pamphlet extolling the virtues of doing so regardless of any submissions.

Politicians over here love listing vast tracts of land into “World heritage” in order to score brownie points with the Greens. Even the Liberals are not above it, even though they know they will never get a Green preference while their arses point earthwards. Well, live in hope.

There is the usual claims in the document of positive benefits to the community, and goes on to say “the Cooloola area shares the same outstanding values as neighboring Fraser Island” and “Cooloola is a natural extension of the Fraser Island World Heritage Area.” There is no need of course to explain these claims or giving examples, “Look hicks, just do as you are told and bend over and take it.”

The biggest problem with this is the statement that, “There will be no impediment to existing or planned land uses, “unless they threaten the World Heritage values of the area.”

These “World Heritage values” are not defined in any way, shape, or form. It seems we just have to assume that it’s all going to be OK and we have nothing to worry about.

The agenda of the deep greens has no consideration for the rights of the individual. Not property rights, not freedom of access, not anything that we normally assume as free people unless they have their approval, and being lefties, commercial enterprise is frowned on.

Apr 12, 2010

I doubt that politicians here bother to read the sort of stuff they pass, if they did they might be more effective if they could understand what they read that is. It seems to me though that they tend to simply follow party lines.

John Conyers is a Congressman in the US who believes it is unnecessary, claiming that in the case of the health bill, it would require a couple of days with two lawyers to understand the contents. He is so unaware of the size of it that he claimed it was a thousand pages while the current estimates range from 2,400 – 2,700 pages. Watching the video I am inclined to wonder if this man was even sane before he slipped away into dementia.

Apr 11, 2010

Photo(shop) One of our own home grown ratbags, Phillip Adams, sanctimonious, opinionated, self-righeous, leftist shill, and creature of the state, (as long as the right are not in power.) (Communists for Kerry have had a little fun with him here.)

The leftist elite, when sipping their lattes in whatever suburb is currently fashionable occasionally find it satisfying to pay a little attention to what they suppose to be the roots of their movement, the working class, something that reminds me of the Douglas Adams quote on humans (as ape descendents):

“Humans are not proud of their ancestors, and rarely invite them round to dinner.”

When it comes to the working class you just can’t get better in the eyes of the left than the coal miner, I mean he works deep underground, gets dirty, and there are hundreds of stories of the hardship of the bad old days. They can all empathize with them, as they know all about it from watching “Coal Miners Daughter.”

This guy, EJ Dionne is one such leftie. Now I don’t wish to sound cynical, but he as a journalist, academic, and all round liberal shill, while probably never having been to the coal face has that certainty of knowing all there is to know about everything, especially after seeing the afore mentioned movie. Anyone who has parented teenagers knows this attitude.

Being a liberal, while not being in the industry, he knows just what mining needs, taxation, regulation, subordination, rationalization, and nationalization. The same as any other industry, hell it’s just that simple.

“There is a dispiriting and, yes, heartbreaking sameness about how we respond to mining disasters.”

Anyone with any knowledge of mining knows that the courage and tenacity of the workforce who are able to go to the rescue is inspiring, not dispiriting.

The one thing that keeps a trapped miner going more than any other is the certainty that his mates will be moving heaven and earth to get him out of there. Loss of life is tragic and hits the mining community hardest.

Dionne manages in his anxiety to get on with the real issue, government control, to get an entire two lines out about the miners:

“We celebrate the stoic sturdiness of mine workers who pursue their craft with pride, bravery, and full knowledge of the risks it entails.”

These idiots could at least wait until the dead are buried, and the results of the inevitable inquiries come out before they run off on their political agendas.

This story from newsmax will warm the hearts of 2nd amendment supporters:

Judge Alfred Mackey of Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court advised residents Friday to be vigilant and arm themselves because the number of deputies has been cut about in half because of a tight budget. He also urged neighbors to organize anti-crime block watch groups.

"They have to be law-abiding, and if they are not familiar with firearms they need to take a safety course so they are not a threat to their family and friends and themselves," Mackey said Friday.

Mackey, whose comments were first broadcast Thursday by WKYC-TV in Cleveland, was expressing concerns with budget cuts that have trimmed the sheriff's department from 112 to 49 deputies in the county, which is Ohio's largest by land area.

Asked by WKYC how people should respond to the cuts and limited patrols, he said, "Arm themselves. Be very careful and just be vigilant because we're going to have to look after each other."

It would be interesting to speculate on just why the budget cuts are aimed at what is one of the very few legitimate areas of government activities, namely the provision of police to secure the safety of the community from criminals. Still government these days have other fish to fry, so the basics just have to go.

Another more liberal judge maintains that this “is scary,” although offering no alternative. I can see reasons for the residents to be outraged at having to put their bodies on the line to provide their own protection while their taxes go elsewhere, but what the hell is scary about the possibility of a few crims getting shot up? The citizen has a right to self-defense.

One of the most interesting aspects of the affairs of the county is that they run their jails on the socialised health model:

“The jail in the county of about 100,000 people has held as many as 140 prisoners, but the number has dipped to about 30 because of reductions in the guard staff. About 700 people are on a waiting list to serve time in the jail.”